Finally ending the longtime practice of releasing criminal illegal aliens who complete U.S. prison sentences, a new federal program has identified thousands who will instead be deported.

In its short existence, the Criminal Alien Program has found nearly 12,000 incarcerated illegal aliens across the country in both state and federal prisons. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers now monitor jails nationwide to ensure that offenders in the country illegally are not released into the community by securing a removal order prior to the end of the prison sentence.

Before the implementation of the much-needed program, thousands of criminals were annually released because local law enforcement officials claim inmates’ immigration status is the federal government’s to identify. The consequences have been costly for U.S. taxpayers who fund the incarceration of repeat offenders and deal with the risk of living next to them.

ICE estimates that more than half a million alien criminals in U.S. jails have not been identified for removal and that another 275,000 are at large. The Homeland Security agency is particularly concerned about aliens held in state and county facilities that get released before ICE officers identify them.

One of the more innovative arguments against the Criminal Alien Program, Is that it will lead illegal immigrants to stop reporting child abuse or domestic violence to protect husbands and fathers from deportation. The head of a radical Chicano group called Mexican American Political Association, Nativo Lopez, took it a step further in saying that the program weakens and eliminates civil liberties.

The 47-year-old California-based group demands legal rights for all Latinos, including illegal immigrants, and organizes massive marches in an effort to intimidate lawmakers into passing legislation that grants them. The organization’s leader actually changed his name from Larry to Nativo in order to sound more Mexican and ethnic and American Patrol says he is a life-long ethnic hustler and advocate for the disastrous illegal alien invasion of the United States.